English Dub Review: AYAKA: A Story of Bonds and Wounds “Why Don’t You Go for a Ride?”

Overview:

Yukito Yanagi graduates from middle school and returns to his home on the Ayaka Islands.

Our Take:

This episode follows Yukito Yanagi, who has been living in a foster home. He always keeps to himself and he doesn’t seem to have any friends. He just graduated from middle school and he receives a letter saying that his father’s friend will be taking him in and he’ll be moving back to the Ayaka Islands. When he was younger, his father died trying to save the island from what seemed like an erupting volcano. I’m not sure if there’s more to that story since the episode doesn’t go that far into it.

Jingi Sagawa is the one who picks Yukito up and brings him home. Jingi is one of Yukito’s father’s disciples. He tells Yukito that the two used to be like brothers, but Yukito doesn’t remember him. He still doesn’t remember anything about his childhood when he meets his guardians or even when he sees a picture of him with everyone.

They all tell Yukito about his father and that he was a Ley master. That’s basically a magic user, which explains why Yukito has water-related powers. However, he doesn’t know how to control them and that’s why he usually keeps to himself.

Jingi helps him when he comes face-to-face with a giant creature. Yukito is rough around the edges, but Jingi plans on helping him control his powers. He also wants to break Yukito out of his shell since there’s no reason for him to be alone all the time.

This show has an interesting enough premise from what has been explained. I’m intrigued by the use of magic and I hope to learn more about it. This episode feels like it leaves out a lot of details, but I guess I shouldn’t expect the show to tell the viewer everything at once. Yukito seems like a typical brooding protagonist at the beginning. I’m not sure why he doesn’t remember anything from when he was a kid, even what his dad looked like. I feel like he was old enough at the time that he’d be able to remember those details. The character starts to grow on me a little towards the end of the episode when he starts to lighten up a bit, so I hope that continues.

Jingi is an enjoyable enough character so far. He’s a troublemaker and he has some interesting methods when it comes to giving Yukito a push. Yukito gets him back at the end of the episode, so I’m confident that their dynamic will grow on me.

I like a lot of the show’s visuals and there’s a lot of world building potential with the different islands and their inhabitants. Overall, I see a lot of promise here and I hope AYAKA is able to build on that with future episodes.